Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Baby Boom Among Women Ph.D.s

In my own little faculty at Centre College, six female colleagues have had babies in the past three years. One was born yesterday. Her birth announcement was the first I had seen with a full account of the classical derivation of her name, with footnotes and web links.

2 comments:

I wonder if this has to do with more professional and academic women feeling its okay to have babies while being in their chosen field of work or is it really just a result of more women becoming professionals or academics. It seems there is a marked increase in the number of women receiving Law and other professional degrees. Many of whom, unfortunately, drop out of the profession after having children. Also, I think more women who already have children are pursuing degrees.

I think it is because the most educated women are the best informed about new family sociology research, and are aware of the recent birth dearth among women Ph.D.s. Also, they are the first to see that the widespread belief that women can easily have children in their 40s is simply not so, and are planning their childbearing more realistically.

Colleges are also more family friendly than they used to be, now that many more women are academics.